Punjab CM
in eye of stormDispute over ownership of
five-acre plotHardwar, November 2These days, Captain Amarinder
Singh, the Punjab Chief Minister, is in the eye of a storm in the holy
city of Hardwar. A dispute between Captain Amarinder Singh and others on
the one hand and the Nagar Palika Parishad, Hardwar, and the Hardwar
Development Authority on the other, about the ownership of a plot,
reportedly worth about Rs10 crore, has triggered a controversy taking
political overtones.

Cong to
campaign in Gujarat from Nov 11New Delhi, November 2The Congress today announced that
it will launch its election campaign in Gujarat from November 11 at
Karamsad, the ancestral home of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Cong
nominates Das, Rawat for RS pollNew Delhi, November 2The Congress has decided to
nominate Mr Akhilesh Das and Mr Harish Rawat for the November 18
election to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

TV serial
artists
Smriti Malhotra (left) and Kiran Karmarkar with producer Ekta
Kapoor (centre) after receiving the Indian Telly Awards at a
function in Mumbai on Friday. — PTI

Govt
unable to check march of MNCs: RSSNew Delhi, November 2The RSS chief, Mr K.S. Sudarshan,
has blamed a group of officials in the Planning Commission for helping
multinational companies to capture every sector of the economy, adding
that the BJP-led government is not able to do anything.

A student of a fashion institute decorates a painting at an
exhibition in Lucknow on Saturday.

Women purchases utensils at a shop for the occasion of "Dhan
Teras" in Bhopal on Saturday.
— PTI photos

PIL
against VHP leader dismissedNew Delhi, November 2The Delhi High Court yesterday
came down heavily on a petitioner seeking initiation of criminal
proceedings against VHP leader Praveen Togadia for his alleged
utterances against minorities and Congress President Sonia Gandhi,
saying that actions of both the parties were motivated with the sole
desire of publicity.

Pak
blocking economic progress: IndiaNew Delhi, November 2In a significant diplomatic
assertion which may well cast a shadow on the forthcoming SAARC Summit
due to be held in Islamabad in January next, India today said Pakistan
was creating a “chicken and egg” situation by putting obstacles in
the way of economic progress.

Cauvery:
Assembly session on Nov 11Bangalore, November 2Under attack from the Opposition,
the S.M. Krishna government has decided to convene an emergent session
of the state legislature on November 11 to discuss the Cauvery issue
and explain the rationale behind its decision to release water to
Tamil Nadu.

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Hardwar, November 2
These days, Captain Amarinder Singh, the Punjab Chief Minister, is in the eye of a storm in the holy city of Hardwar.

A dispute between Captain Amarinder Singh and others on the one hand and the Nagar Palika Parishad, Hardwar, and the Hardwar Development Authority on the other, about the ownership of a plot, reportedly worth about Rs10 crore, has triggered a controversy taking political overtones.

Captain Amarinder Singh and others filed a suit in the court of the Civil Judge, Hardwar, in 1999, claiming the ownership of the disputed plot, measuring about five acres, in Saptsarover area of the city. The Civil Judge, delivering his judgement on October 11, upheld the claim of Captain Amarinder Singh and others on the land. The Nagar Palika Parishad and the Hardwar Development Authority filed an appeal against the order in the court of the District Judge on October 16.

However, with political joining in, the land dispute is snowballing into a major controversy. The local BJP MLA, Mr Madan Kaushik, told mediapersons here a few days ago that the local administration, at the behest of the state government, had been favouring the Punjab Chief Minister and did not plead the case properly in court.

Politics makes strange bedfellows. The Samajwadi Party, generally at loggerheads with the BJP, is lending support to it on the issue. The national general secretary of the party, Mr Ambrish Kumar, said here a few days back that the controversial land, known as Yatri Padavyaan, had always been the Kumbh mela land and had always been used to provide shelter to the pilgrims during the Kumbh and the Ardha Kumbh melas. Now land records were being tampered with to help Captain Amarinder Singh, he alleged. The Samajwadi party activists also held a rally at the disputed plot, protesting against the alleged complicity of the local administration.

The sant community queered the pitch of the raging controversy, when a delegation of some prominent sants, led by Mahant Shankar Bharti, the chief of the All-India Akhara Parishad, the apex body of sadhus and mahants, met the Chief Minister, Mr N.D. Tiwari, recently and threatened to boycott the coming Ardha Kumbh mela, if the mela land was not retrieved.

On the contrary, the Congress leaders are blaming the BJP and the Samajwadi Party for taking to the streets a matter which was purely legal and sub judice. The spokesman of the state Congress, Mr Rajesh Shivpuri, said the opposition parties are raking up the issue only to derive political mileage in view of the coming urban bodies’ elections in the state.

The vice-chairman of the Hardwar Development Authority, Dr Dilbagh Singh, termed the allegation of the complicity of the local administration as baseless. The District Magistrate, Mr S.K. Maheswari, set up a committee to examine the land records and measure the disputed land again. Sources said it would soon submit a detailed report in court.

New Delhi, November 2
The Congress today announced that it will launch its election campaign in Gujarat from November 11 at Karamsad, the ancestral home of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Addressing a joint press conference here, Mr Kamal Nath, general secretary in charge of Gujarat and party leaders including the PCC chief, Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela, the CLP leader, Mr Amarsinh Chaudhary, Mr Naresh Raval and Ms Urmilaben Patel, said the Congress was confident of dislodging the “corrupt’’ BJP government.

Mr Kamal Nath said if voted to power the Congress would set up special courts to probe the cooperative scam which had affected lakhs of people in Gujarat.

He said the Congress would explore the possibility of an electoral understanding with the secular forces for the December 12 assembly elections.

Mr Kamal Nath said the Congress would consider forging an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Lok Janashakti and the Left parties. The local leaders of the Congress were in touch with the NCP leaders in the state, he added.

He said in the course of the campaign, which would include several rallies addressed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the party would promise to fight corruption and expose the ``ill-deeds’’ of the BJP government.

Mr Vaghela said the Congress campaign would focus on the scam-ridden rule of the Modi government. Terming Narendra Modi’s gaurav yatra as “hypocrisy,’’ he said the state government had gone bankrupt and was surviving on overdrafts. There was no money to carry on the development works, he alleged.

Mr Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president, Mr Suresh Pachouri and Ms Shelija were also present.

New Delhi, November 2
The Congress has decided to nominate Mr Akhilesh Das and Mr Harish Rawat for the November 18 election to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

While Mr Das is a sitting Rajya Sabha member, Mr Rawat is the PCC chief in Uttaranchal. There were several claimants to the two seats in the Congress. Mr Rawat’s election to the Upper House is expected to be a smooth affair but Mr Das will need the support of some more legislators besides the 24 MLAs of the Congress.

New Delhi, November 2
The RSS chief, Mr K.S. Sudarshan, has blamed a group of officials in the Planning Commission for helping multinational companies to capture every sector of the economy, adding that the BJP-led government is not able to do anything.

“There is a group in the Planning Commission that feels there should be 100 per cent FDI in all sectors. There have been attempts to allow multinationals in the retail trade. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch has gone to the Prime Minister thrice and got the proposal scrapped. But they are advancing again because there are officials connected with
MNCs,” Mr Sudarshan said in an interview with India Today in its latest issue, which will hit the stands this weekend.

He said the RSS had been holding meetings with the Prime Minister “every three or four months” and was aware of the constraints of the coalition government.

Listing three major constraints of the government, he said the first was to keep the coalition going. Secondly, international agreements signed by previous governments had to be honoured. Lastly, there was a difference between what the BJP had earlier said and what it was doing now.

“The BJP had earlier opposed the World Trade Organisation
(WTO), but in government, it has to implement these agreements...There is unhappiness in the party. Despite this answers can be found. We should try and increase interaction with people,” he said.

The RSS chief said he had told Mr Vajpayee that there were two streams in the government. “One feels we must get assistance from abroad and use it for development. The other feels that we should focus on the resources available in the country and that foreign capital has marginal use,” he said.

Asked whether the Jammu experience, where the RSS supported the Jammu Statehood
Morcha, nullified the Sangh Parivar concept, he said in the media it was called a “parivar” but each organisation was independent taking inspiration from the Hindu thought process.

He said what went wrong in Jammu was the government’s reaction to the RSS resolution that the state be trifurcated.
UNI, PTI

New Delhi, November 2
The Delhi High Court yesterday came down heavily on a petitioner seeking initiation of criminal proceedings against VHP leader Praveen Togadia for his alleged utterances against minorities and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, saying that actions of both the parties were motivated with the sole desire of publicity.

“By filing such a petition you want to keep the issue alive. If we issue notice the matter will be before the court and keep revolving and you will get publicity every time,” said a Bench, comprising Mr Justice Anil Dev Singh and Mr Justice R.S. Sodhi, while “dismissing as withdrawn” a public interest litigation (PIL) by advocate Anel Sirohi.

Stating that courts should not take congnisance of such matters, which were inspired with a desire of publicity, the Bench told Mr Sirohi that his petition was based entirely on newspaper reports, which had no legal value.

How could any inference could be drawn on the basis of such “obnoxious” reports when the petitioner himself had not heard Mr Togadia uttering these words, the court asked.

While the petitioner said if a person was allowed to go scot free for such “utterances against minorities” it would lead to communal tension in the country, the court held that by giving importance to such persons “the media was in a way playing in their hands.”

On newspaper reports, which were cited by petitioner as proof of Mr Togadia’s utterances, the court said: “These are all public statements. These in turn will provoke the other side. Unfortunately religion is being exploited to serve their own interests by some people.”
PTI

New Delhi, November 2
In a significant diplomatic assertion which may well cast a shadow on the forthcoming SAARC Summit due to be held in Islamabad in January next, India today said Pakistan was creating a “chicken and egg” situation by putting obstacles in the way of economic progress.

Asked to comment on the outcome of the recently concluded discussions in Kathmandu under the South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA), a foreign office spokesman here said: “Any lack of progress on economic cooperations generally weakens the SAARC process.”

The Kathmandu discussions concluded inconclusively because Pakistan offered 250 items for tariff line concessions, of which 146 were banned in India.

Bangalore, November 2
Under attack from the Opposition, the S.M. Krishna government has decided to convene an emergent session of the state legislature on November 11 to discuss the Cauvery issue and explain the rationale behind its decision to release water to Tamil Nadu.

The state Cabinet meeting on November 4 would take a decision on the duration of the session, official sources said.

Caught off-guard by Krishna’s sudden move to undertake a padayatra to his home district of Mandya, the opposition parties have launched an offensive against him since then accusing him of bungling on the Cauvery issue.

Mr Krishna’s explanation on his padayatra has not satisfied the opposition about his intention which, they alleged, was political. They even refused to attend an all-party meeting on Cauvery called by him on Sunday.
PTI

NATIONAL BRIEFS

STAR PLUS, AAJ TAK BAG TELLY AWARDS
MUMBAI: Star Plus and Aaj Tak have been adjudged the Best Entertainment Channel and the Best Television News Channel respectively at the 2nd Telly Awards for 2002 instituted by indiatelevision.com on Friday night. “Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” won trophies for the best continuing television show for 2002 as well as the best TV show of the year award. While Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, received the best Drama series award. Balaji Telefilms, maker of both “Kyun Ki...” and “Kahani Ghar....” bagged the award for best television production house of the year.
UNI

CONGRESS
BACKS RAJNIKANT’S PLANCHENNAI: Pleading support to superstar Rajnikant’s proposal for a people’s movement to link the peninsular rivers, Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress working President E.V.K.S. Elangovan on Saturday flayed Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa for criticising the actor. In a statement here, he said “if Ms Jayalalithaa had talked about the project 20-year-ago, what were her efforts for its implementation in all these years, especially when she was at the helm of affairs in the state.”
UNI

MAN
ARRESTED FOR FORGERYMUMBAI: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Mumbai police has arrested a person for false representation and alleged non-payment of mobile phone bills of Rs 81.22 lakh. Metropolitan Magistrate R.D. Gate on Saturday remanded the accused, Newton John in police custody till November 14. The police said the accused had prepared bogus documents of e-Funds International India Ltd and Gammon India Ltd to buy SIM cards and mobiles by claiming to be an employee.
UNI

TWO AMU STUDENTS SUSPENDED
ALIGARH: Two students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) were suspended on Saturday following ‘unruly scenes’ at a football match between Panjab University and the host AMU on Friday, university sources here said. A section of the spectators had invaded the football ground during the Inter-University North Tournament match.
PTI

ZOO
ON BRINK OF ANOTHER DISASTER
BHUBANESWAR: Years of neglect and insensitiveness have pushed the Nandankanan Zoo to the brink of yet another disaster, threatening the very existence of hundreds of birds and animals. It was the 1999 super cyclone that upset the ecology and devastated the park. But now the zoo is heading towards yet another disaster due to the sheer negligence and lack of interest of the authorities in tackling the multiple problems being faced by the zoo.
UNI